10 February 2014

Skandies: The "nominees"

Not all that much suspense about who/what remains, so let's answer potential questions about near-misses and no-chances here, as well as give the top picks a little additional airtime. (Sorry it's all text, incidentally—I have virtually no HTML skills and invariably mangle any attempt to combine words and images, except in the most basic just-one-image-up-at-the-top kind of way.)


Best Picture


• Before Midnight
• Frances Ha
• Her
• Inside Llewyn Davis
• The Wolf of Wall Street

Overlap with Oscar nominees: Her, The Wolf of Wall Street.
Just missedNO (#21), Drug War (#22), Museum Hours (#23), Beyond the Hills (#24), The Grandmaster (#25)
Not so muchNebraska (#31), American Hustle (#32), Captain Phillips (#39), Dallas Buyers Club (no votes), Philomena (no votes).


Best Director


• Shane Carruth, Upstream Color
• Joel Coen & Ethan Coen, Inside Llewyn Davis
• Alfonso Cuarón, Gravity
• Terrence Malick, To the Wonder
• Martin Scorsese, The Wolf of Wall Street

Previous "nominations": A year of perennials, with four of the five nominees ranking among the ten most-nominated directors in Skandie history. The Coen Brothers hold the record, with five top-five appearances. They have yet to actually win, however, unless they did so this year. Allowing that Ethan, uncredited as such until fairly recently, was in fact a co-director with Joel, they previously placed 3rd for Fargo (1996), 5th for O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000), 3rd for The Man Who Wasn't There (2001), and 2nd for No Country for Old Men (2007). Terrence "never not nominated, even when he makes what is widely considered his weakest film" Malick is right behind them with four—he's won twice, for The New World (2005) and The Tree of Life (2011), and also placed 4th in 1998 for The Thin Red Line. Scorsese, too, is a previous winner (for The Departed, 2006), and then there's Kundun (#5, 1997) and Gangs of New York (#3, 2002). Cuarón gets his third nomination, having landed at #4 for Y tu mamá también (2002) and at #2 for Children of Men (2006). (He was beaten by Scorsese in the latter instance, so history may repeat itself.) Come back, Shane!
Overlap with Oscar nominees: Cuarón, Scorsese.
Just missed: Joshua Oppenheimer, The Act of Killing (#21); Carlos Reygadas, Post tenebras lux (#22); Cristian Mungiu, Beyond the Hills (#23); Edgar Wright, The World's End (#24); Jeff Nichols, Mud (#25).
Not so much: Alexander Payne, Nebraska (#35); David O. Russell, American Hustle (#41).


Best Actress


• Cate Blanchett, Blue Jasmine
• Julie Delpy, Before Midnight
• Adèle Exarchopoulos, Blue Is the Warmest Color
• Greta Gerwig, Frances Ha
• Amy Seimetz, Upstream Color

Previous "nominations": Blanchett is the most-nominated actor in Skandie history, with five total; she won Supporting Actress (over my loud objection) for The Aviator in 2004, and also placed 2nd in the lead category for Elizabeth (1998), 5th in Supporting for Coffee and Cigarettes (2004), and 2nd in Supporting for I'm Not There (2007). Delpy placed 4th for Before Sunset in 2004.
Overlap with Oscar nominees: Only Blanchett.
Just missed: Cristina Flutur, Beyond the Hills (#21); Felicity Jones, The Invisible Woman (#22); Bérénice Bejo, The Past (#23); Emilie Dequenne, Our Children (#24); Mary Margaret O'Hara, Museum Hours (#25).
Not so much: Judi Dench, Philomena (#38); Meryl Streep, August: Osage County (#53).


Best Actor


• Leonardo DiCaprio, The Wolf of Wall Street
• Chiwetel Ejiofor, 12 Years a Slave
• Oscar Isaac, Inside Llewyn Davis
• Joaquin Phoenix, Her
• Robert Redford, All Is Lost

Previous "nominations": Phoenix was nominated just last year for The Master, finishing 3rd; he also won Best Actor in 2009 for Two Lovers. DiCaprio placed 2nd for The Departed in 2006.
Overlap with Oscar nominees: DiCaprio, Ejiofor.
Just missed: Jake Gyllenhaal, Prisoners (#21); Emile Hirsch, Prince Avalanche (#22); Tony Leung, The Grandmaster (#23); Paul Eenhoorn, This Is Martin Bonner (#24); Gael García Bernal, NO (#25).
Not so much: No candidates—every Oscar nominee made our top 20.


Best Supporting Actor


• Barkhad Abdi, Captain Phillips
• Michael Fassbender, 12 Years a Slave
• James Franco, Spring Breakers
• James Gandolfini, Enough Said
• Jonah Hill, The Wolf of Wall Street

Previous "nominations": Fassbender has been nominated for all three of his roles in Steve McQueen's films; he placed 5th in the lead category for both Hunger (2009) and Shame (2011). Franco came in at #3 in the lead category for 127 Hours (2010). Gandolfini gets his second and most likely final (sniff) nomination, having placed 3rd for The Mexican in 2001.
Overlap with Oscar nominees: Abdi, Fassbender, Hill. Either these really were the best performances of the year, or (my theory) you guys are getting a tad lazy.
Just missed: Javier Bardem, The Counselor (#21); F. Murray Abraham, Inside Llewyn Davis (tie for #22); Gerald Peary, Computer Chess (tie for #22); Ben Mendelsohn, The Place Beyond the Pines (#24); Sam Rockwell, The Way, Way Back (#25).
Not so much: Jared Leto, Dallas Buyers Club (#28).


Best Supporting Actress


• Sally Hawkins, Blue Jasmine
• Scarlett Johansson, Her
• Jennifer Lawrence, American Hustle
• Lupita Nyong'o, 12 Years a Slave
• Léa Seydoux, Blue Is the Warmest Color

Previous "nominations": Johansson has won this category before, for Ghost World (2001); she's also previously placed 5th for The Horse Whisperer (1998) and 2nd in the lead category for Lost in Translation (2003). Lawrence has won Best Actress, for Winter's Bone (2010). Hawkins placed 2nd in the lead category for Happy-Go-Lucky (2008).
Overlap with Oscar nominees: Hawkins, Lawrence, Nyong'o. Again, I feel like you're just rubber-stamping the folks getting the most attention.
Just missed: Sarah Paulson, 12 Years a Slave (#21); Sophia Takal, All the Light in the Sky (#22); Nicole Kidman, Stoker (#23); Oprah Winfrey, Lee Daniels' The Butler (#24); Kristin Scott Thomas, Only God Forgives (#25).
Not so much: Julia Roberts, August: Osage County (#73).


Best Screenplay


• Noah Baumbach & Greta Gerwig, Frances Ha
• Joel Coen & Ethan Coen, Inside Llewyn Davis
• Spike Jonze, Her
• Richard Linklater & Julie Delpy & Ethan Hawke, Before Midnight
• Simon Pegg & Edgar Wright, The World's End

Previous "nominations": Again, the Coens are the runaway all-time leaders here—this makes their eighth screenwriting nomination, though their sole win is for Burn After Reading (2008). Fargo (1996) placed 3rd (in the one year when there were separate Original and Adapted categories); O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000) placed 4th; The Man Who Wasn't There (2001) placed 3rd; No Country for Old Men (2007) placed 2nd; and both A Serious Man (2009) and True Grit (2010) placed 4th. Baumbach is tied (distantly) for second place, now with four nominations; he won for The Squid and the Whale (2005) and placed 4th for Margot at the Wedding (2007) and 5th for cowriting Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009) with Wes Anderson (who also has four nominations). Linklater's two previous nominations are for the other two Before films; Before Sunrise was one of the nominees in the survey's Oscar-style inaugural year (so it doesn't have a number—it just failed to win), and Before Sunset placed 2nd in 2004. Delpy and Hawke shared in the latter nomination as well.
Overlap with Oscar nominees: Jonze, Linklater + Delpy + Hawke
Just missed: Bob Nelson, Nebraska (#21); Todd Berger, It's a Disaster (#22); Jeff Nichols, Mud (#23); Matías Piñeiro, Viola (#24); Paolo Sorrentino & Umberto Contarello, The Great Beauty (#25).
Not so much: David O. Russell and Eric Warren Singer, American Hustle (#26); Billy Ray, Captain Phillips (#27); Steve Coogan & Jeff Pope, Philomena (#57); Craig Borten & Melisa Wallack, Dallas Buyers Club (#78).


Best Scene

Nah, I gotta save something as a surprise.


12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Somehow I figured most folks would consider Johansson a co-lead. Did she get many votes in that category?

md'a said...

18% of her points were allotted in the lead category. Mistakenly, in my opinion, as Samantha is only ever present in relation to Theodore. But I'm the wacky guy who insists that Denzel Washington plays a supporting role in Training Day, despite being onscreen for 90% of the film's running time.

Alex said...

I wouldn't have thought HER was fundamentally about Samantha, but I've been on the wrong side of a few categorizations so far this year.

How did June Squibb do on the Supporting Actress "Not So Much" scale? Shutout?

TuttleAC said...

How did THE COUNSELOR do in Best Picture? Is it bad and I don't wanna know?

md'a said...

Alex: You must have missed Squibb, who placed 12th.

The Counselor finished just outside "Just Missed" at #27.

Mike M said...

Any idea if this is the first all-American top 5 (actually top 6)? Seems odd.

md'a said...

We've had five English-language films several times before, but this is the first time all five have been exclusively American.

And now that I check, one of the other years people tend to cite as a wealth of riches, 1999, landed its highest foreign-language picture (The Dreamlife of Angels) way down at #12. Seems like "amazing year" is really code for "amazing year for movies in English."

Nictate said...

Skandies: #firstworldproblems Edition

Anonymous said...

Johansson-as-supporting-actor makes sense to me; somehow I just figured it would make less sense to other folks.

And FWIW I wholeheartedly agree that Washington is supporting in Training Day, though the idea that he and Hawke might be co-leads is one I can at least grudgingly consider -- unlike, say, the Academy's crazy notion that Hawke is somehow supporting.

Mike M said...

That (last bit) makes a lot of sense. I've been somewhat puzzled by the consensus celebration of this year's films.

Anonymous said...

I was really hoping to see Elizabeth Debicki get a supporting actress nod for her stellar work as Jordan in The Great Gatsby.

mr. pink said...

Had no idea anyone else even saw IT'S A DISASTER, which had the funniest script of anything I saw all year (and a pretty great David Cross performance). Good job Skandies.